Keanu Reeves in The Matrix
Keanu Reeves is probably best known for his role in The Matrix, where he plays the messianic figure Thomas A. Anderson, also known as Neo. Neo is an anagram for (The) One. In the poster for his breakout role of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Keanu sits atop the time traveling phone booth cuboid with the letters o-n-e framed by his legs. Reeves also plays the role of Buddha in Little Buddha, adding more resonance to this theme. He has been connected to the Dog Star Sirius through his involvement as the base player in the band Dogstar. Dog is an anagram for god, adding yet more resonance between Reeves and god.
Themes of Keanu Reeves in Movies[]
Keanu can be seen in nearly the same pressed suit begging some divine beings to forgive humanities and/or his own sins in Constantine, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Devil's Advocate, Johny Mneumonic, and in The Matrix.
There is a magical or karmic theme common to some of his movies. In Constantine, Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) argues with Constantine about his trying to buy his way into heaven. In the first "Matrix" movie, the Oracle tells Neo that he is going to have to make a choice to save himself or to save Morpheus. In both movies, Keanu's character sacrifices himself and is resurrected.
The Devil's Advocate reiterates the theme of Keanu being in too deep, and possibly being a kind of fallen angel. This seems to be opposite of him playing the Osiris, Jesus, and Shiva archetypal roles of Neo, Ramayana, and Klaatu; though at the end of the movie, his character sacrifices himself which also happens in Constantine and The Matrix.
He is also connected to Superman because he shares his surname with two other actors who have played Superman in television and on film, George Reeves and Christopher Reeves. During a scene in The Matrix Reloaded, when Neo is flying through the Matrix, the operator of his ship describes it as: "He's doing his Superman thing again."
Some of Keanu's Siriusly Deeper Dog Star Connections[]
Keanu's links to the Dog star Sirius goes way way beyond his involvement in the band Dog Star. Semiotic subtleties of specific names, numbers and more blatant symbols show up throughout his films particularly his blockbusters. Keanu's various cinematic Dog star representations range from various dog and intelligent dolphin representations and the repeated emphasis on the number '50' to several scenes with him 'following the white rabbit' and his many roles with the name John or Jack and especially roles emblematic of John the Baptist. Please allow me to explain.
Keanu's most obvious Dog star resonance beyond his folk rock band Dog Star is his uncredited role as 'Ortiz the Dawg Boy' in the film Freaked, directed by his buddy Alex Winters (Bill of Bill and Ted fame). As an actual dog-man and the leader of a bunch of circus freaks Keanu's character spends most of the film chasing a squirrel. On a similar note Reeves' first highly regarded stage role was his appearance
Keanu as Ortiz the Dawg Boy
in the play Wolf-boy in which he played the victim of a disturbed young man who believed himself to be a werewolf. Also Keanu's celestial-dog connection seems to have been initiated in his childhood during which his pet dog was named Jupiter.
The dog symbolism of Keanu's career also shows up in a few key character names such as Rufus (as in 'ruff ruff') George Carlin's character in the Bill and Ted films and Keanu's role as Donny Barksdale in The Gift. Rufus' connection to Sirius goes beyond this as well as further Sirius links with the recurring Keanu film character name Ortiz but these are beyond explaining here.
The significa
Two Dogon depictions of the Nommo
nce of the various intelligent dolphins or fish-people that show up in Keanu's films is a bit more difficult to explain but in short it relates to the traditions of the Dogon tribe of Mali, West Africa which according to a number of anthropolical accounts claim that they were taught about Sirius (the star at the center of their religion) by extraterrestrial fish people which they new as the Nommo. Whether or not the Nommo were definitively from the Sirius star system is not always clear but they've long been associated with the mysteries of the Dog star - as extensively demonstrated in books such as Robert Temple's The Sirius Mystery.
The Babylonian fish-man teacher-god Oannes
Getting back to the Keanu connection to these dolphin-people the most obvious example is his interaction with the technologically-enhanced code-breaking dolphin Jones at the end of the film Johnny Mnemonic. but the earlier Keanu movie Prince of Pennsylvania also has some interesting fish-person resonances. for instance in a scene or two his character describes himself as wanting to become a dolphin, and one of the producers for the film was Joan Fishman. As we'll see soon Jones and Joan as alternative versions of the name John also have a special connection to Sirius.
A couple further fishy Sirius-Nommo links in Keanu's career include the strange aliens Station from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey who - beyond being two alien dudes that become one as Sirius is actually two close stars that appear as one - are also essentially anthropoid versions of a hybrid fish-dog creature in their appearance. And the name of the main villain from that same Bill and Ted film, De Nomolos, is essentially a pun for 'anti-Nommo'.
50-MPH over a 50-foot gap
The Sirius-significance of the reccurence of the number 50 in Keanu films such as Point Break (the 50-year storm) and Speed (50-miles-an-hour minimum, 50-foot jump, etc.) is likewise amply demonstrated in Robert Temple's epic work on the Dog star The Sirius Mystery. Temple meticulously demonstrates why Sirius was 'encoded' into the works of many ancient cultures through the number 50 - whether it was the 50-oarsmen of the legendary boat the Argo, the 50 Anunnaki, the originally 50 heads of the underworld dog Cerberus or any of many other examples. In regards to the astrophysics of the binary Sirius star system itself 50-years is the time period in which the two primary stars, Sirius A and Sirius B, routinely 'flip' over each other and event that the Dogon tribe is said to have long celebrated through specific festivities.
Sirius, Canis Major and Lepus
The Keanu-Sirius link that emerges from his repeated cinematic 'following of the white rabbit' is based upon Sirius being the primary star in the Canis Major or 'Great Dog' constellation which is positioned in the sky such that it is in constant 'pursuit' of the nearby constellation Lepus (the 'hare' or' rabbit'). Keanu's most famous following of the white rabbit is certainly the scene in Matrix The Matrix in which he's instructed to follow the girl with a white rabbit tattoo on her shoulder which in turn soon leads him deep into the 'rabbit hole' that is the real world outside the Matrix. Then there is the scene - also in The Matrix - whe
Dennis Hopper as a 'white rabbit'
n he enters the Oracle's home and the strange film about giant rabbits Night of the Lepus is playing in the background. The most subtle but perhaps most meaningful following of a white rabbit by one of Keanu's characters (Jack Travens) is probably his pursuit of Dennis Hopper's character Howard Payne in Speed. It would be difficult to explain all of the reasons why Dennis Hopper resonates so well as a 'white rabbit' but the most clear example is his last name, Hopper, which of course suggests a rabbit as hopping is the primary way by which rabbits move around. Significantly Jack ultimately ends up pursuing Hopper's character down into a 'rabbit hole' subway for their showdown - a scene closely repeated with another Hopper villain at the end of the first season of 24 but this time with a 'Jack' character played by Keifer Sutherland.
There are other Keanu-rabbit connections such as the pinkish-white rabbit demon that pursues him in Hell in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and the Donnie-Darko rabbit connections of two-time Keanu costar Patrick Swayze, but hopefully the above has already made the point adequately.
The connection between Sirius and Keanu's profoundly numerous John and Jack-named roles involves both the name John's real or popularly-alleged origins in the ancient Babylonian fish god-teacher Oannes an anthropoid fish-human that ancient writers such as Berossus recorded h
Some Keanu-John the Baptist resonances
ad taught humankind many of the arts of civilization, and the fact that Keanu's main John roles are all rich in symbolism especially suggesting John the Baptist in particular. The links between 'John' and ancient records of the fish teacher Oanness relates back to fish-people Sirius connection briefly explained above, while the John the Baptist connection points to the Dog star because of actual astronomical correlations between Sirius' rising and the traditional celebration days of the Baptist's holy day together with other Sirius-related elements of his mythology.
Keanu Reeves Acting[]
His acting style is often criticized (by those who have no experience in acting, film, or theater) as being empty or "not home". This open (or empty) vessel like resonance is often interpreted as being air-headed, especially because his career was initiated by films like Bill & Ted, while other serious projects went unnoticed. This empty palmed, natural nature-based observance of a situation and subsequent disconnection or un-attachment with physical reality is characteristic of Virgo. The Virgin takes a Hermetic stance in order to understand the world around them, and feels more comfortable with life that most other Horoscope signs. The shadow of this personality is unfortunately symptomatic of being stuck on this plane, or that this reality is truth. Virgo like Pisces, if not careful can accidentaly miss the chariot or the instructions, and be led astray by others' constructs of reality.
Keanu has also played Hamlet in an off screen production. "He quite embodied the innocence, the splendid fury, the animal grace of the leaps and bounds, the emotional violence, that form the Prince of Denmark ... He is one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet." - Roger Lewis, Sunday Times Critic
Theories About Keanu Reeves[]
There are amusing theories, presumably made in jest, about Keanu being immortal, a vampire, a fallen angel, an Egyptian or alien, and so forth.[1]
Also in regards to the'immortal Keanu' meme Reeves notably played the youthful hero role opposite Gary Old-man in Bram Stoker's Dracula, starred in the made-for-TV film Young Again and initially got his movie career going acting in Youngblood.
External Links[]
Keanu Reeves on Wikipedia
Keanu Reeves at the Encyclomatrix
The Matrix at the Encyclomatrix
Keanu further decoded at KeanuCode.com